Language, Politics, and Social Interaction in an Inuit Community (review)

Donna Patrick’s title refers to a multilingual northern Quebec Inuit community and seeks to address the question of how a minority language survives in Canada. Her actual focus seems to be on why French is not spoken as well as English, Inuktitut, and Cree in this northern community. Her methodology suggests that politics and economy provide answers for linguistic choices made in the Kuujjuarapik community. Of the six chapters in the book, the third, fourth, and fifth warrant the most attention.

The first two chapters explain her methodology and initial interest in the subject. She describes some of the complexities involved in linguistic research among First Nation communities and then situates her work in terms of linguistic political economy. The northern Quebec region serves as focus for the second chapter as she briefly explains the current political and historical context. P also addresses the history of formal education and explains how Inuktitut and Cree were established as the main languages of instruction. Having Inuktitut or Cree as the main language (depending on whether you were Inuit or Cree) of instruction at school is part of a detailed analysis in the fifth chapter.

The third chapter deals with Inuit background and history. While little is known about Inuit prior to the arrival of Euro-Canadians, P offers glimpses of life prior to this contact. As the contact ensues, she describes the influences of missionaries, offering some very positive images of both the missionaries’ work and their impact on the Inuit culture. This positive account is rare for a work of this nature since most other accounts focus on the annihilation of culture and language. For this community, missionary impact has been profoundly positive. Instead of eradicating the language, the missionaries both learned and promoted Inuktitut, and this made it possible for the communities to have instruction in their own language.

P’s research also traces shifting perceptions of Inuit identity and reputation from early contact to the present. She suggests that when trade and contact were good, their image and reputation were favorable. When the situations were problematic (i.e. when trade was not good), she explains that the image and reputation of the Inuit suffered immeasurably, and they were often characterized then as savage and hostile to contact.

Her fourth chapter on the linguistic marketplace is central, though she acknowledges having only scratched the surface. She concentrates on how Inuktitut has flourished in the community and schools despite the presence of Cree, English, and French. Much of the chapter addresses the use of each of these four languages in the community. Problematic is the case of French and its lack of use in the community, even though Quebec is French-dominant. The chapter ends with a discussion of how important English is in this community, even though it is third after Inuktitut and Cree.

I found the research for the fifth chapter, ‘Ethnography of language use’, most important and very interesting. P details an Inuit student’s reluctance to speak French with her and struggles to offer an adequate explanation for the student’s linguistic choices. Second language acquisition (SLA) theory and research would have been very helpful to gauge the sociocultural effect of learning and using a second (or third) language in this community. In particular, John Schumann’s research on the acculturation model offers some insight into the quandary of language choices and use (see Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 7.5.379–92, 1986). Ethnic and social boundaries guide her analysis of linguistic practices within the community. Ultimately basing her explanations on the distribution of power among the Inuit, Cree, French, and English, P observes a complex set of social networks affecting the boundaries and limitations of linguistic influence. Prestige does factor into the Inuit choices made between choosing English or French, but most importantly, tradition and community ties strengthen the use of Inuktitut as a first language.

Overall, there is admirable sensitivity to cultural...